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At this moment, Darian could feel a powerful psychic force suddenly descend, covering the entire casino.
It was a purely mental, violent crushing force, sparing neither friend nor foe, impacting the consciousness of every living person in the venue indiscriminately.
Darian clearly felt this psychic force frantically burrowing into his mind, squeezing his thoughts, attempting to seize control of his brain.
"This bad luck is coming too fast!"
Darian couldn't help but complain in his heart.
The money he won from gambling had just been spent, and not only had Wade been struck by misfortune, but he himself was suffering as well.
Fortunately, Darian's mental attribute was not low, allowing him to temporarily resist this sudden psychic erosion. Thus, unlike the people around him, his body did not become completely rigid and frozen; he could still barely move.
However, this erupting psychic force was far too tyrannical. Its oppressive feeling far exceeded the Dracula he had encountered before. He estimated that with his own mental attribute, he could only hold on for a short while longer under such intense impact.
However, this amount of time was enough for him.
Darian did not hesitate at all, immediately taking out the ring and quickly sliding it onto his finger.
The moment the ring was put on, the psychic force ravaging his brain seemed to lose all purchase, sliding off his smooth cerebral cortex and disappearing without a trace, unable to affect him in the slightest ever again.
The pressure vanished instantly, and Darian immediately regained full control of his body.
At this moment, he was like the protagonist in a movie who had pressed the pause button; everyone else was frozen, and only he could move freely without being affected.
Darian looked around and found that everyone was suffering terribly from this AoE psychic storm. Their expressions weren't completely blank, but rather showed pain, their bodies spasming slightly while unable to move.
This was by no means gentle mind control, but a simple, crude crushing of mental power!
If this continued, the brains of those affected would completely lose control, and all neural activity would cease to be directed. Even the most instinctive breathing movements might be interrupted. Before long, there would be a large batch of bizarre cases of people suffocating to death, enough for 'Approaching Science' to film several episodes.
"This psychic force..."
Being in this parallel Universe dominated by Mutants, and knowing of an existence with such a massive scale of psychic power, the first person Darian thought of was Charles.
But the problem was, while Charles's psychic power was strong, he would never use such destructive, violent crushing like this.
Darian immediately looked at Wade; this guy might know something.
Although Wade was also suppressed by the psychic force and unable to move, the Healing Factor in his body quickly took effect. After a brief brain lag, he resisted this psychic force and was barely able to move.
He saw this guy using all the strength he had just recovered, his neck stiffly twisting, his eyeballs almost popping out of their sockets, locked firmly onto the number corresponding to the small white ball hovering on the roulette wheel.
Then, with hands trembling like someone in the late stages of Parkinson's, he pushed the chips in front of him bit by bit onto that number area.
This idiot actually wanted to take advantage of the moment when time in the room was almost frozen to cheat and make a killing!
Darian's mouth twitched slightly, and he walked up and slapped the back of the guy's head: 'What time do you think it is! Tell me quickly, what is going on here?'
"It's... Charles... His ability... is out of control..." Wade answered intermittently.
It really was Charles!
Darian didn't ask any more questions. Now was not the time to probe for details. He grabbed Wade by the back of his collar and dragged him directly toward the center of this psychic storm.
"No... My chips... My 35-to-1 odds..."
Wade let out a shrill, cracking scream as his body was dragged along, desperately reaching out a hand toward the gambling table.
Darian turned a deaf ear to his wailing and took the elevator all the way to the hotel floor above the casino.
Just as he stepped out of the elevator, he saw several militants wearing black tactical gear and holding automatic rifles, frozen in place by the psychic force just like the people in the casino below, holding various combat poses.
And in the middle, a figure walking with heavy, staggering steps was using six Adamantium Claws to finish off the helpless militants one by one.
[NPC: James Logan Howlett]
[Codename: Wolverine]
[Favorability: 0]
[Comment: Old Wolf, a tragic man with elders above and children below, dragging his family along, the anchor of the Mutant Universe]
[Status: Healing Factor severely regressed, Adamantium poisoning]
The person in front of him was exactly the Logan of this parallel Universe.
But compared to the two Logans Darian had dealt with before, this Logan's state was Worlds apart.
His hair and beard were mostly gray and white, his face was aged, every movement was sluggish, and his whole body exuded a heavy feeling of powerlessness. There was no shadow of that 'don't-agree-just-fight' attitude left.
Logically speaking, Logan, who possessed a high-concentration Healing Factor, should almost never have been in this state.
Even if he were old, with a healing ability, he should at least be much healthier than a normal person, not like this, looking like he had one foot in the grave.
And the reason for all this was clearly attributed to Old Logan's condition.
Adamantium poisoning!
Adamantium was not some gentle implant; it had strong metallic toxicity, continuously eroding Logan's cells. In the past, he could withstand it only because of his powerful Healing Factor.
Simply put, his healing speed far exceeded the rate of damage, keeping his health bar in a healthy state.
But now the situation had reversed. For some reason, the Healing Factor in Old Logan's body had severely regressed, and the healing speed could no longer keep up with the damage. His health bar began to be whittled away bit by bit, which was why he had turned into this aged appearance.
The Adamantium that once made him invincible was now slowly killing him from the inside, just like the Arc Reactor in Tony's chest back then.
At this moment, that indiscriminate, violent psychic force was also crushing Old Logan.
But his condition was much worse than Wade's. He could barely even stand firm, having to stab his Adamantium Claws into the wall to barely support his swaying body so he wouldn't collapse.
Old Logan gritted his teeth and, with movements so slow it was heart-wrenching, struggled to finish off the militants in front of him.
After finally taking down a few militants, he panted heavily, his chest heaving violently, cold sweat of weakness oozing from his forehead and mixing with blood.
Just then, Old Logan suddenly sensed movement and turned his head to look at Darian and Wade at the elevator entrance.
"Hello, you're busy, I see."
Darian greeted him familiarly.
Old Logan was shocked to see that Darian was completely unaffected.
This person could actually ignore Charles's ability!?
But immediately, his eyes became vigilant, his whole body tense, as if he regarded Darian and Wade as enemies.
Darian didn't pay attention to this. After saying hello, he dragged Wade straight toward the room in front of Old Logan.
"Stop... there!"
Seeing Darian walk toward the room, Old Logan roared hoarsely, trying to block him with his remaining strength.
But his movements were too slow. Darian just sidestepped to avoid him, and Old Logan missed and fell to the ground.
Darian bypassed Old Logan and walked into the room at the center of the psychic storm.
Inside the room, several armed personnel were frozen in place. Their automatic rifles were aimed at a back sitting in a wheelchair. Just from the back of his head, which was shiny enough to reflect light, one could tell that this person was definitely extraordinary; he was at least a big shot.
[NPC: Charles Xavier]
[Codename: Professor X]
[Favorability: 10]
[Comment: The most powerful Telepath, an old father nearly a hundred years younger than Old Wolf, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. His ability once went out of control, causing over six hundred ordinary people and seven Mutants to suffer instant brain death, including several X-Men]
[Status: Severe brain degeneration, currently having an episode]
The World's most powerful brain actually had Alzheimer's disease; it was truly absurd.
Darian couldn't imagine Charles's elderly life being so miserable.
Not only did he have Alzheimer's, but he also couldn't control his own abilities, accidentally killing so many people. This was undoubtedly torture for Charles, who possessed a moral bottom line that was like a locked health bar.
What was even more miserable was that the other party was actually bald.
Seeing that this elderly version of Charles's status showed he was having an episode, Darian looked around and saw a little girl crawling.
[NPC: Laura Kinney]
[Codename: X-23]
[Favorability: -50]
[Comment: Wolverine clone, Old Wolf's daughter, possessing the same abilities as Wolverine]
Darian was amused.
No wonder they said Old Logan had elders above and children below; it really was bringing along a father and a daughter.
What kind of combination was this, the old, sick, and disabled?
Laura stared fiercely at Darian and Wade, baring her teeth, a low growl like a young beast emitting from her throat, clearly having classified them as enemies.
Darian was puzzled; did he look that much like a villain?
He attributed all of this to Wade; it must be that this guy had caused him to be misunderstood by association. Otherwise, how could he, with such a friendly and amiable personality, be mistaken for a bad guy?
However, Laura was still in her developmental stage, and her physical stats were far from mature. Under Charles's indiscriminate psychic suppression, she found it extremely difficult even to stand up, let alone launch an attack.
Darian noticed that in her tightly clenched hand, she was holding a syringe containing medicine.
"Let me borrow this."
Darian completely ignored Laura's glare and unceremoniously took the needle from her small hand.
"Buddy... You look... like a creepy uncle... snatching a lollipop... from a little girl..."
Wade was struggling to speak, but he still couldn't suppress his urge to complain.
Darian ignored him, picked up the syringe, and walked toward Charles. He found a neck vein, stuck the needle in, and slowly pushed the liquid in.
The effect was almost immediate.
That suffocating psychic force vanished suddenly. The huge pressure difference caused everyone to instantly lose their strength and collapse to the ground, followed by a chorus of painful groans and gasps of relief from surviving.
Wade shook his head frantically: "I feel like my brain was serviced by a dozen big men, and they left their white..."
Bang!
A gunshot interrupted Wade. A smoking hole appeared on his red-and-black hood, and his body fell to the ground with a thud.
Darian held up the golden desert eagle and scolded: "There's a kid present, why are you talking dirty? What if you corrupt her?"
Everyone on the scene: "...."
"Aren't you afraid of corrupting the child yourself?"
"Argh!"
A roar suddenly came!
Old Logan, who had just recovered some mobility, staggered into the room. Not giving those militants any chance to react, his Adamantium Claws flashed with cold light as he forcefully stabbed them into their vital points.
In the blink of an eye, the last armed threat in the room was cleared away.
After dealing with the militants, Old Logan immediately turned his gaze toward Darian, who was holding the gun. He dragged his exhausted body and rushed over again, six blood-stained Adamantium Claws tearing through the air, stabbing straight at Darian's chest!
Muay Thai Warning!
Darian threw an elbow, directly blasting Old Logan away, and secretly shook his arm.
This Old Wolf's bones were truly hard!
He said sincerely: "Logan, we are not enemies, don't force me to fight."
Old Logan: "..."
"Aren't you already fighting?"
Old Logan climbed up with difficulty, preparing to launch another offensive, but heard Charles's voice.
"Logan, stop, he is not an enemy."
Hearing this, Old Logan stopped his attack abruptly, his claws hanging in mid-air.
Darian shook his head and said: "At this age, why is your temper still so irritable? Learn from your daughter; she could tell at a glance that I'm not a bad guy."
Laura had long since recovered her mobility, but she just stood to the side without attacking. Even her favorability had returned to a normal level, clearly seeing that Darian was not an enemy.
Of course, whether he was a 'bad guy' or not was another matter.
Old Logan saw Darian's familiar manner and frowned: "Who the hell are you?"
At this time, Wade slowly climbed up from the ground: "We are your best friends, especially me. In the comics, we love and kill each other, often sticking our long and hard things into each other's bodies..."
Bang!
Another crisp gunshot.
Wade's words stopped abruptly, his brain wide open, and he fell backward.
Darian snorted: "I told you not to corrupt the child."
Old Logan: '...'
He was even more certain that these were not decent people. After all, who shoots their own companion!
But the next moment, his pupils shrank!
Wade's corpse actually moved. He used his hands to push off the ground as if nothing had happened and stood up again. The blood hole on his forehead was healing rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared without a trace.
Old Logan was all too familiar with this.
Back in the day, he was like this too. Forget getting shot once; even being executed for hours wasn't a problem; he could still get back up and continue fighting quickly.
But he couldn't do it now. Nowadays, his Healing Factor was severely regressed.
Even if he got shot once, the wound would need to lie there for half a day to barely heal halfway, and he would have to manually dig out the bullets himself. It was like swapping a 5090 for a trash graphics card, which made him very unaccustomed to it.
Old Logan said in a deep voice: "Are you Mutants?"
"That's right."
Darian turned to look at Old Logan: "To be honest, we are actually from another parallel Universe, and we are here specifically to invite you to join our team."
Parallel Universe?
Old Logan was not like the Logan from the previous World. He had been a student of Charles for decades. His education level wasn't high, but it existed, so he naturally understood the concept of a parallel Universe.
But he just felt it was incredibly absurd and didn't believe this statement at all. He twitched his mouth: 'Stop reading those messy comic books. I don't know you, and I have no interest in any team. We have enough trouble of our own.'
Seeing that Old Logan wouldn't listen, Darian turned his gaze to Laura, who also possessed healing abilities, and revealed a smile he thought was kind.
"Little sister, are you interested in joining my team? It's a lot of fun, and there's candy too."
Darian took a piece of candy out of the game inventory.
Laura's gaze was firmly fixed on the candy, and she was about to reach out to take it.
Old Logan, this old father, was instantly anxious. He immediately blocked Laura behind him, looking at Darian with a defensive expression.
"She won't agree to you either!"
Darian was unhappy: "She hasn't spoken, how do you know she won't agree? And she looks like she's very willing."
Old Logan looked down and, sure enough, saw Laura staring longingly at the candy, looking unpromising. His face turned green.
If he didn't watch her, his newly met daughter might really be lured away by the other party with candy!